Park Avenue boss Lee Sinnott’s hopes of improving his players’ match-fitness were once again scuppered on Wednesday at home to Brighouse Town.

He had seen many of his squad gain much-needed game-time two days earlier and wanted others to get a chance to shake off ring-rust ahead of Saturday’s trip to Prescot Cables.

But the West Riding County Cup tie was yet another home postponement due to a waterlogged pitch.

Nevertheless, Avenue go into their first away fixture since the 4-0 win at Marine on a high following their amazing 6-4 win at home to Ashton at the start of the week.

“If you looked at the score, and given our pitch of late, you might have thought we were playing ice hockey on Monday,” joked Sinnott.

The three points lifted the Bradford club back into the play-off places in the UniBond Premier Division.

Sinnott added: “Considering we were coming out of a two-week lay-off, we started well. We were 3-0 up before the half-hour.

“But we also made mistakes and we shouldn’t have put ourselves in the position we did – 5-4 with three minutes to go and the visitors having their tails up.

“In short, parts of it were very good and parts of it need a lot of work.

“We will take that into training and do what we have to, having one eye on next Monday because we play Ashton again in the reverse fixture.

The only injury worry for the visit to the league’s bottom club is midfielder Matty James, who would have missed the County Cup tie.

New signing Jamie Price, who made his debut against Ashton, Tom Morgan, James Knowles and Andy Campbell were all cup-tied on Wednesday so Sinnott must decide whether they come back in or whether to give others a chance to get match-fit.

The Bradford boss added: “We are in fifth position now and it is up to us to take up the mantle.

“One thing is for sure, we can’t afford another 20-minute period like we had last Monday when Ashton came back into a game they should have been closed out of.

“There has to be no coasting whatever team we are playing or whatever the score. We have to be professional about our business.”